Paso Robles Distillery Tour

We were recently invited by Jill Tweedie of Breakaway Tours and Event Planning to go on a distillery tour of Paso Robles. Distilleries are the new big trend in Paso Robles so there are actually quite a few at this point. On this tour Jill took us (Annie an I along with several other media people) to Re:Find Handcrafted Spirits, Fish Gaucho for lunch and a mixology lesson from their bartender Matt, KROBAR Craft Distillery, and Wine Shine.

At Re:Find one of the owners, Monica Villicana, talked us through why they added the distillery alongside their winery and the process they use in their distillery. She was insanely informative, I actually wish I could have just recorded her but I did not. You can learn a bit more about Re:Find here. We tasted their Vodka, Cucumber Vodka, Gin, Limoncello, and a Kumquat Flavored Brandy.

There were a couple of other things we could have tasted like their Whiskey but we were trying to pace ourselves. I know, strange that we would try to pace ourselves. We’ve been big fans of their Vodka, Cucumber Vodka, and Gin for some time. It was great to get more of the back story and learn a bit about distilling from Monica. She was awesome. I encourage you to go visit them and hear the story firsthand from them. Nobody can tell a story quite like the people actually living it.

Second stop was Fish Gaucho for lunch. If you have followed our blog at all you know we’re big fans of Fish Gaucho. Good food and a really fun vibe. Here’s what they brought out for all of us:

Salsa Trio & Morro Bay Guacamole with Chips

The house cobb salad called El “Cobb”ron

Carnitas Tacos

Chicken Verde Chilaquiles

All the food was great but my favorite was the Chilaquiles. Matt, bartender and mixologist, and the staff took great care of us…as usual. Once we were done with lunch we moved to the bar where he prepared a couple of drinks and of course, we had to taste them to make sure they were good. And yes, they were. He made a drink called The Highwayman (local Re:Find Gin, toasted almond syrup, lavender honey, meyer lemon, SLO Bitter Co. charred cedar bitters) and another cocktail that I don’t have the ingredients for but you’ll see it in the photos below.

Third stop was KROBAR Craft Distillery. Our friends, Steve Kroener and Joe Barton, make up the KRO and BAR. Steve took care of our group on this day and he’s always a good time. He tasted us through their Neutral Brandy (Vodka), Botanical Brandy (Gin), Gin, Single Barrel Gin, and Rye Whiskey. He also tasted us on a few other things but this is the stuff on the counter.

I loved the Neutral Brandy (Vodka), the Botanical brandy (Gin), the Gin, and even the Rye Whiskey that I’m typically not a big fan of. One thing I will point out about this place is that it’s not just the spirits from KROBAR that you have access to. You also have Joe’s Grey Wolf Cellars and Barton Family Wines and at some point Steve’s wines, Silver Horse Winery, will be there too. Oh, and they also have food from Chef Jeffry M. Wiesinger at Barton’s Kitchen Window. You seriously don’t have to leave…they have it all.

Our final stop was Wine Shine which is located in the infamous Tin City area in south Paso Robles. Our buddy Patrick, one of the owners, was in there to pour for us and he’s another one that is always a good time. An interesting note is that they get all of their juice (most of the booze mentioned in this blog post are all made from wine grapes) from some very well-known local vineyards like Saxum, Denner, and others.

Here we tasted a Turkish fig flavored brandy, a hibiscus flavored brandy, an orange flavored brandy, a cinnamon flavored brandy, their Manhattan Project which is a whiskey. I’ve been a sucker for their cinnamon flavored brandy for quite some time and we also have a bottle of the orange in our pantry. The Turkish fig was super unique but sadly he was pouring from the last bottle of that one.

It was an impressive day in the sense that each spirit was so different from the next one. No two were similar and each was hand crafted by people that obviously passionate about what they are doing. As Monica (Re:Find), Steve (KROBAR), and Patrick (Wine Shine) told us their stories and explained their processes you could hear and see the enthusiasm they have for the industry. Thank you to the three of them for taking the time and sharing as much information as they could in the time allotted. It’s pretty cool that we can open our pantry and all three of these distilleries is represented.

A big thank you to Fish Gaucho and Matt for taking the time as well. It really is a unique restaurant in downtown Paso Robles. As I said, the food is really good, the vibe is super fun, and the people have always taken great care of us.

Lastly, thank you to Jill from Breakaway Tours for putting this together along with Robin from SLO Bitter Co. It was great getting to know Jill a bit better after seeing her here, there, and everywhere over the last handful of years. I had not known Robin before this but she proved to be extremely knowledgeable and she (along with her hubby, Matt from Fish Gaucho) are doing really interesting things in the drinks industry.

Thanks again…and cheers!